


Choices

by Feneris



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Slavery, Betrayal, Choices, Community: snkkink, Consequences, Escape, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-24
Updated: 2014-07-24
Packaged: 2018-02-10 05:12:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2012223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Feneris/pseuds/Feneris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone made a choice that night. Jean chose to trust Mikasa. It was a mistake. Ymir chose Krista. It cost Thomas and Daz. Sasha and Connie chose their freedom. They escaped. Marco chose to help a friend. He paid the price.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Choices

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I did this late at night after reading about ancient slavery practices. Too much caffeine and I started to think of a slave AU with the 104th, a stray thought went along the line of "It's a good thing Eren's not their master, because Mikasa would turn them in without hesitation." and a few more hours of sleep deprivation later, and this fic was born. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy, and as always criticism and critique is welcome and encouraged.

***CRACK***

The whip fell, breaking skin with it's blow.

Jean had to bite his tongue to keep from screaming.

Ymir had warned him not to trust Mikasa. She had been right.

He had, of course, hoped differently when he chose to let Mikasa in on their escape plan. He had hoped, against all hope, that the promise of freedom would be enough. That the hope of finally being able to throw off the chains of slavery would be strong enough that she would cast aside the loyalty she felt she owed Eren and come with them.

He had been wrong. Mikasa had ratted them out to Eren without pause or hesitation. He should have expected it. Mikasa had regarded Eren as the axis of her world for as long as Jean had known her. She wore her collar as a badge of pride, instead of symbol of suppression. While the others saw her status as a place of shame, she saw it as an honor.

Mikasa had a choice between freedom and slavery. Between casting off her shackles, and retaining them.

She had chosen her shackles over freedom. She had chosen Eren over him, and Jean knew he had been a fool to hope otherwise.

***CRACK***

They hadn't been without help though. Jean was sure Armin had known about their plans from the beginning. Yet, he had not told Eren of his suspicions. In fact he had helped them. No openly of course, but subtly. Doubtless he had noticed the inconsistencies in the supply ledgers, instead he had written them off as normal attrition. Expected loss due to wear, vermin and accidents. Unreported because the overseers thought accounting for every length of broken rope and every misplaced hammer to be a pointless waste of time.

He had even gone so far as to "accidentally" schedule a guard who was off on leave to do an unpopular midnight patrol watch, leaving a brief window where there was no one out patrolling. He had even "forget" to put the ledger away, leaving it open on his desk for Krista to see when she went to clean the room.

He had not told Eren anything about their plan. But, he had also not told Jean that Eren knew of their escape plan, nor did he tell Jean that he had corrected the "mistake" in the guard schedule, when Mikasa brought it to his attention.

In the end, Armin's situation was not theirs'. While he may have been a slave like they were, Armin was also Eren's childhood friend and close companion. Eren respected Armin, trusted him to manage the books for the estate, and treated him like an equal. He even payed Armin a salary for his work. A salary which exceeded that of the overseers and guard captain. Armin was even engaged to Miss Annie Leonheart, a respected businesswoman from the town, and was going to be freed when they got married.

In the end, why would Armin risk everything he already had, for a reward that he was already in line to receive? The admittance left a bitter taste in Jean's mouth.

***CRACK***

There had also been a few guards on their side. Reiner and Bertholdt had been sympathetic to their plight. There had been a few instances where they had willfully turned a blind eye to the secret stashes Jean and his co-conspirators had squirreled away.

Several times they had accepted the hasty and weak explanations Jean had given them for their suspicious behavior with nothing but a nod. Jean knew they had seen through him, but they chose to believe him anyway.

However, both men had children to feed. They needed their jobs. Therefore they hadn't hesitated to unleash the dogs when the alarm was raised that an escape was in progress.

Jean found he couldn't blame them for that. Even he would have chosen his family over some escaping slaves.

***CRACK***

It had been a disaster from the beginning, but they had gone through with it anyway. They really had no choice.

The first thing to go wrong had been Krista hitting a bad patch of tiles as they had been crossing the roof of the warehouse, trying to avoid the dogs prowling below. She hadn't been hurt. An awning had broken her fall. But she had drawn the attention of the dogs, which were making their way over to investigate.

He hadn't liked it, but Jean had realized instantly that they would not be able to rescue Krista without drawing attention to themselves. They had little time as it was, and everything would fall apart if they wasted any of it trying to rescue Krista.

Ymir had disagreed. She hadn't hesitated to push Thomas off the roof into a rosebush. drawing the attention of the dogs away from Krista and drawing every searching lantern in the courtyard right onto him.

Jean knew he should have expected it. Ymir cared for few people, but Krista high on the list. Thomas wasn't even on it. Ymir cared little if Thomas got mauled by the dogs. She cared deeply if Krista did. She hadn't hesitated to jump down to the awing and help haul Krista back onto the roof, even as the shouts and lanterns closed in on them, and they were forced to bolt for the wall.

Ymir had made a choice, and it was clear she valued Krista's life far more than she valued any of theirs.

***CRACK***

Somehow, they had managed to scramble over the wall. Even Ymir and Krista had managed to scale the old brickwork with the dogs snapping at their heels. Daz was the only one who hadn't. Ymir hadn't hesitated to stomp on his fingers when he had desperately tried to grab onto Krista in order to pull himself up.

All that was left was to escape into the woods. Jean had twisted his ankle jumping down from the wall, and every step stabbed with pain, slowing him.

Sasha had whipped past him, followed closely by Connie. Neither had so much as spared him a backwards glance. Why would they? Freedom was literally inches away from them. They weren't going to risk being recaptured for his sake.

Ymir, carrying Krista on her back, had even gone so far as to trip him. No doubt reasoning that she wouldn't have to outrun the dogs, if she could just outrun Jean.

Already he was hearing the barking of the dogs as the guards started to comb the woods. Then suddenly Marco was behind him, throwing an arm under his shoulders and hefting him up. Together, they had hurried through the woods, the barking and shouting getting closer behind them.

They had then come to a large willow, it's branches thick with leaves. Marco had helped Jean scramble into the branches, high enough that the dogs wouldn't get them.

But he hadn't climbed up after Jean. Instead, he had run, crashing and banging through the woods in the opposite direction from where the others had gone, shouting into the night for them to slow down and let him catch up. The dogs had homed in on him. Marco had just enough time to scramble into a scraggly oak before they had him trapped.

The guards had passed right under Jeans willow without even noticing him.

***CRACK***

Marco let out another choked scream and the whip cut across the flesh of his back. Blood was oozing from the cuts.

It took all of Jean's willpower not to leap from his hiding spot in a bush on the other side of the courtyard. It took every bit of willpower he had not to shout out in alarm. He had to wait. It would be night soon. Then he would have a chance.

***CRACK***

Marco could have escaped.

He could have run past Jean without a second glance. He could of kept running like Sasha, Connie, Ymir, and Krista had. He could have easily let Jean fall behind to pay the price for being the slowest.

He would have escaped.

Eren hadn't even bothered to report their escape, let alone organized any attempt to pursue the escaped slaves. Armin had told Jean once, that it would actually be cheaper for Eren to simply replace all the slaves on the estate with laborers from the refugee camps.

None of them were worth the effort it would take to recapture them.

Marco could have made it. He could have easily disappeared into the woods that night, snatched the freedom that was right there in front of him.

But Marco had made a choice. He chose to help Jean. He chose to help his friend climb into that willow, instead of merely running past. He chose to sacrifice his chance at escape, in order to lure the dogs and the guards away from Jean's hiding place.

Marco had made his choice, and he had chosen his friend over freedom.

As Jean lay there in that bush, waiting for the hot sun to finally set, he couldn't help but wish that Marco had chosen otherwise.


End file.
